. >> reporter: what's more, brown says he was stunned to learn that a new york city hotline alerted people they could find shelter at st. john's. >> he has this whole hospital area in his own house. >> reporter: one of those was jose martinez, who uses a ventilator to keep him breathing, and who had to be evacuated after the storm hit. how quickly did you realize you were in serious trouble? >> well, we didn't realize it until my wife went to the basement. she was folding some clothes in the laundry. all of a sudden she heard water dripping. so she looked around to see where it was coming from. she found out it was coming from the window, through the window. >> reporter: more than 1300 people work at st. john's. a number of them live in hard-hit areas and lost their homes. like the hospital's chaplain, they, too, pray for a miracle. before this crisis, we were nip and tuck, shall we say, in terms of our finances, just getting by and there really won't be a way for us to survive this unless there are some gracious angels and the federal government and state government come up with a differe